1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the maintenance of network parameter settings in a device or terminal which accesses services provided by or through a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In mobile communications systems, a terminal such as a mobile telephone handset is provided with parameter settings which configure the terminal for use in certain operations. For example, a terminal may include settings such as network specific information for different network services. The different network services may include, for example, GPRS access information, SMS (Short Messaging Service) access information, (Multimedia Messaging Service) MMS-settings, WAP settings, user profile information etc. Typically the terminal is configured with network specific information to enable use of such services. If this network specific information is changed, by the user or due to a terminal error, then the services associated with the information may become inaccessible.
If the terminal is rendered such that the service can no longer be accessed, a user may contact their services provider to obtain any necessary technical support. The technical support then may attempt to correct the problem over the phone by accessing and downloading the correct parameter settings to and from the terminal, or may instruct the user how to reconfigure the network settings of the terminal, or may require that the terminal be brought in for service.
This procedure for reconfiguring the network settings is disadvantageous. The cost to the operator is significant because of the need to provide trained and experienced staff to provide the technical support. The need to contact the service operator is inconvenient for a user of a device.
As stated hereinabove, the terminal is configured with network specific information to enable use of such services. In the event that a terminal is roaming, the terminal may become connected in a network to which the specific information for which the terminal is configured may not be useable. The fact that different network providers have different network specific information is one reason why handset manufacturers sell provider-specific variants of phones. As such the phone handset is pre-configured with the desired settings for the network. As a result, when the terminal is used for national or international roaming, certain services may become unavailable due to non-compatibility of a current operator with the phone settings. The user of the terminal may be unable to send MMS or reach their Mailbox or WAP service. The only way around this is to manually reconfigure the terminal settings. However this requires expertise on behalf of the user, and inconvenience.